Ron's Total Resolve, Part 2

False Prophet Ronald Weinland started his sermon of October 27, 2007 by asking what had changed since the Last Great Day sermon on October 4.

As discussed in my previous post Ron's Total Resolve, one thing that changed was that his bank account was several thousand dollars lighter from having taken Laura on a luxury 12-day Mediterranean cruise.

But his question was directed to his members, asking what they had changed in their lives to show Total Resolve for Ron's prophecies. He stated that they couldn't continue as before, that they had to change since time was short with the sealing of the 144,000 to happen in February, 2008 followed by the start of the Great Tribulation in April. No longer could one continue planning as under Armstrong for the end-time being perpetually 5 to 10 years in the future.

Ron claimed that he had been "running down the hill" since the Feast. This is a reference to the story of Gideon and his army of 300 who defeated Midianites, making noise by breaking their pitchers and blowing trumpets. However in Judges Chapter 7 there is no mention of Gideon's army running down a hill. Instead, they stealthily advanced to the edge of the camp and then simultaneously started making noise to simulate a large attack on the Midianites, throwing them into confusion.

Weinland stated that efforts to promote his prophecies would intensify in January of 2008, with members to show their commitment by beginning to proselyte their friends and family. The discussion soon switched to money. Since there was to be no organized Feast of Tabernacles in 2008, members were to send in 3/4 of their Second Tithe to finance his media campaign.

Ron started selling the idea that members should donate heavily, particularly those who were to be "sealed" as part of "the 144,000". In a discussion of whether or not to pay off your house, he said that it wouldn't matter if your house was paid off because your house could be taken from you regardless. He mentioned that he had a good deal of equity in his $381,000 mansion, and that he was trying to get a second mortgage to withdraw the equity for financing the promotion of his books. However he was having difficulty getting a loan because he was charging $35,000 to $40,000 each month on his credit cards -- that the church paid them off monthly did not impress the loan underwriter.

Ron mentioned that he was considering refinancing his mansion in order to get the equity. The following week (Nov. 3, 2007) he repeated his intent to refinance his house to get the equity. He mentioned this again in his sermon of Jan 5, 2008.

Tear a few more pages off the calendar, and in October of 2008, according to the web site for the county where he lives, Ron and Laura paid the annual property tax bill of $3715.13 on his $381,000 mansion directly to the county. Note that I said that Ron and Laura paid the property tax. Not a mortgage company. Ron and Laura paid it directly to the county. Daughter Audra did not pay the property tax on her house directly -- it was paid by her mortgage company according to the same web site. When I had a mortgage, I paid into an escrow account held by the mortgage company which then paid the taxes.

I did some research on mortgage escrow accounts. If your loan balance is less than 80% of your property value, then some mortgage companies will allow you to pay your property tax and property insurance premiums yourself, but may require paying an extra fee for the privilege. Otherwise, they require that you pay into an escrow account monthly. It does not seem to me that Ron would be allowed to avoid paying into escrow if he had refinanced all the equity in his house to spend on Google advertising.

Previously, I was rather skeptical of Ron's claims to be extracting the equity in his house to donate to his own church. This discovery pretty much confirms it for me that he did no such thing. Meanwhile, I wonder how many retirees showed Total Resolve following Ron's "example" by refinancing their house to give the proceeds to the church.

Money for luxury cruises. Money for equity. So much for Ron's Total Resolve.